OLYPHANT - Each egg in the basket was criss-crossed with intricate wax patterns, colors and unique marks.

One egg even featured a portrait of the Blessed Mother.

Some of them took Joyce Garofalo four hours. Others took up to eight.

She picked up the hobby of decorating traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs two years ago after taking one pysanky egg-decorating class. She was one of the experts at a class at SS. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church on Sunday. It was a skill she had always wanted to learn, and after her husband was killed by a drunk driver just before their 30th wedding anniversary, it was a welcome distraction from her grief.

"I had a hard time making it through that first Easter," she said. "That was like therapy for me."

Two years later, though emotion still crept into her voice at times, Mrs. Garofalo spoke fondly of her work creating pysanky eggs with wax, special dye and a stylus.

Paging through a book of designs, she explained that each crosshatch, circle and mark had meaning.

"There's symbolism in a lot of them," she said.

Traditionally, the eggs were kept in homes for protection from storms and evil. They were also tokens given to friends, family or romantic interests, class instructor Sonia Maslar explained.

She instructed alongside her daughter and granddaughter, whom she hopes will carry on the tradition.

"We just hand it down from generation to generation," she said.

Several tables of grandmothers, granddaughters, parishioners and curious locals worked on their eggs Sunday. Mrs. Maslar said the eggs were typically decorated around Easter, but they could be kept on display all year. She has about five dozen eggs she has saved over the years.

"It's such a beautiful work of art," she said.

Contact the writer: rbrown@timesshamrock.com, @rbrownTT on Twitter

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